Buy, buy American Pie

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Organisers of the league international between Australia and the
USA Tomahawks have given the game as much of a yankee doodle dandy
feel as possible to make it viewer-friendly to sports fans brought
up on a diet of American football.

The venue, Franklin Field in Philadelphia, has artificial turf
and the gridiron markings will remain for the game, as will the
fork-shaped gridiron goalposts. The game will be played over four
20-minute quarters, with a ball painted red, white and blue. There
will be cheergirls, marching bands, the military guard and a choir
to sing the national anthems.

The American National Rugby League has adopted the view that if
you price it attractively they will come, and now it is relying on
curious locals responding to give the Tomahawks the support they
will need if they are going to make a decent showing.

Apart from a small reserved section where the seats cost $US20
($25), the vast majority of seats are available at a cheap-as-chips
$US10 for adults and $US5 for school and college students for the
game on Wednesday morning, our time.

"We haven't made the mistake of overpricing it," ANRL chief
executive David Niu told The Sun-Herald.

"We want to take this opportunity to expose as many people as
possible to rugby league, not make them think twice about
going."

Niu said he would be ecstatic if the game on the University of
Pennsylvania ground drew a crowd of 10,000 at the 52,000-capacity
venue.

"That would be a good sign of encouragement for what we're
trying to do with the game over here and a positive indication," he
said.

But the NRL's chief operating officer Graham Annesley, who has
been in the US for two weeks helping with the preparation and
promotion of the event, believes they can aim a bit higher.

"It's always difficult to put a figure on something like this,"
he said. "But the response we've had has been encouraging. I think
10,000 would be satisfactory, but if the weather is good we could
get about 15,000."

Annesley said commentary on the live television coverage of the
game would be unique.

"The game will be shown live on Fox Sports World over here and
on Fox Sports in Australia," he said.

"Warren Smith and Laurie Daley have come across to call the game
and they'll be joined by a couple of American commentators who will
no doubt be asking for the sort of explanations the American
viewers will want."

Niu said the match had received healthy publicity in recent
weeks and he was hoping to maximise that over the next few
days.

"Apart from Philadelphia, we've targeted certain areas of New
York and we've had spots on TV and good coverage in newspapers," he
said.

"We've got three big billboards on Interstate 95, a big
expressway, and we've worked hard to make the college communities
aware the game is on and at a very reasonable price.

"Graham has been a great link for us to Fox and he hasn't been
shy about knocking on the doors of the big networks, either. CBS
and NBC are going to do some stuff with us on game day.

"The Aussies don't arrive until the night before the game, but
we're hoping they'll be able to help us with some promotion on the
day of the game.

"Fox Sports World reaches 40 million homes in the US and if we
could get just 10 per cent of those to switch on to the coverage in
prime time it would be a phenomenal result for us."

Niu, an Australian who played for St George and later the USA,
said the Tomahawks squad consisted of 16 Americans, mostly with
backgrounds in American football at college and all with experience
in the eight-team US league competition, four Australians playing
league in the US as well as Matt Petersen and Brandon Costin.

Petersen, the Parramatta winger, and Costin, the former Canberra
centre now playing in England, qualify because each has an American
grandparent. Each team will have nine reserves and they will be
used under the unlimited interchange system.

The Americans went into camp on Friday under the coaching of
John Cartwright, the former Penrith, NSW and Australian forward who
is the assistant to coach Ricky Stuart at the Sydney Roosters.
"It's exciting to break some new ground like we're doing with this
game," he said.